Why I left Engineering/IT

I didn't leave because it was hard.
I left because it was no longer worth it.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Company Warrants Expiring in 2011 - Actions Needed

I need to remind myself all the outstanding company warrants that are expiring in 2011 in my portfolio which I will need to take action. I will update this list accordingly as I go along so that I won't forget about them.

This year is an interesting year as I had transformed from a growth-value investor to mainly a pure value investor. Which means, I had been picking up stocks mainly on the small/mid cap space and mostly stocks trading at below NTA.

Will pen more of my thoughts soon. In the meantime, do be patient though. :)

This is my first visit to your blog. I can't help but notice that you hold so many counters !! May I enquire how do you find the resource to acquire so many shares in so many company? Are they your trading stocks or investing stocks? How do you find the time to monitor so many of them?

All the stocks in my portfolio are for investment, not for trading. Do follow through some of my posts here previously on my investment strategy.

I believe in diversification and therefore I hold a lot of stocks in my portfolio. Since my portfolio is well diversified, there is no need to monitor each and every of the counter in my portfolio closely.

As for the resources to acquire so many counters, it is not built in one day. I had been investing in the stock market for more than 9 years now. Little drops of water form the ocean. Just slowly build it up day by day.....

i wonder:1) if yours is HDB, r u allowed to install a bigger one? dun think so huh..2) r we as individuals able to subscribe a P.O.Box then we let Boardroam send all their ARs there, then u can go there at one shot collect?

for me, i only hold this handful of shares.. wah, if hold 500stocks, need a lorry of letterbox??

I have been following your blogs for quite sometimes. Thanks for sharing your investment with us for us to benefit from it.

I would like to seek your advise in AIA unit trust investment.

In 2008. I used my CPF $14500 to bought the ILP unit trust AIA. But roughly calculate from CPF tool. I think I have lose $6000 till now. I would like to know whether should I sell my holding to park my money in CPF for interest earning? Or the funds may breakeven somedays if I hold longer (let's said may be another 3 years)I put my funds in China balance, china equity, India opportunity and Global resource fund.

Your ILPs are not very well diversified as they had been invested in mostly narrowly focused sectors/countries like China, India, Global Resources etc. Also, you didn't practice time diversification as you had invested $14500 in one go. You should have been consistently investing into the ILPs every month to take advantage of dollar cost averaging.

Also, why did you invest in ILPs rather than unit trusts? Unless your main concern is with insurance (which is quite little for a single premium ILP), you should take advantage of cheaper alternatives offered by online platforms for unit trusts.

But since you have invested in ILPs, you should not surrender your ILPs now. You should call your agent to ask whether there are free switches and you can restructure your ILP portfolio by taking advantage of free switches. Try to do asset allocation first before deciding which funds to switch to. Make sure that your investment objective and your ability to take risk matches with your new ILP portfolio.

For my case. This is my mistake to believe in my agent that put my money in AIA instead of CPF will get better return. If I miss out that period my CPF will have to cap $20,000 in OA or SA. So I made a wrong decision then. And, I thought ILP will give dividend but is not.

Actually I can't get any agent advise now because she is not liable. I try to switch fund myself as I know it is free. I have not much idea for how to choose a approprite fund definitely. So, I just hope it will break even somedays.

May I know what is asset allocation? Does it means different region or sector?

I really appreciate your suggestion because I keep my investment lost to myself. Sometimes it is quite depress when I think about it.

Personally for me, the two main basics for investment that I personally subscribe to are asset allocation and time diversification. The rest of them like fund selection, costs etc are important as well but that will come only after you get your basics correct.

For asset allocation, it not only meant deploying your assets across different region or sector, but it also meant deploying across different asset classes as well. For example, bonds, equities etc. So, first step is you must get your asset allocation in place.

Once you had asset allocation in place, you can go on to select the funds that you need to represent the asset class that you have selected. This involves understanding the funds that are available and selecting the ones that suites you not only in terms of performance but also the investment style of the fund manager as well.

Since your selection of funds are limited due to the ILP nature, you will not have much choices here. But at least you should come out with an asset allocation plan first before you even attempt to switch funds.

Nope. Under the Company Act, you need to inform your nominees (which in this case, it is your CPF agent bank) of your intention to attend the AGM before you are allowed to do so. Your agent bank will need to proxy you in order your you to attend the AGM with full voting rights.

Alternatively, you can try your luck and appear at the AGM itself and tell them that you are holding shares in your CPF Investment Account. Some companies might let you in as an observer (with no voting rights) but some might not let you in. So, it is better for you to call the company to check before attending.

I guess managing CPF regulation changes is even more challenging than the stock market! With every little changes here and there, it is really difficult to manage my portfolio based on their new changes.

I had been investing almost 100% of my CPF-SA funds into balanced funds and the changes in 2008 to lock up my first $20K really pains me. If you remember, that was the time whereby the global financial crisis striked. You should have been investing during the depth of the crisis, and not locking up your $20K to earn CPF-SA interest. Well, so much for CPF regulations.

Since then, the cap had been increased to $40K.

I think growth oriented balanced fund like PineBridge Acorns of Asia Balanced Fund have a good chance of beating CPF-SA interest rate. S'pore balanced fund like Lion Global S'pore Balanced Fund is also not bad, as it invests mainly in S'pore equities and bonds and there is little currency exchange risk. You may also wish to explore some of those large cap Asian Balanced Funds as well.

Personally, I would like to invest my CPF-SA funds since 4%pa is not really unbeatable if you select the right balanced funds.

About Me

A self-directed investor, looking to invest for retirement needs and bypass all those expensive financial planners/insurance agents. Investing is fun, profitable or most important of all, knowledge gained is useful for the rest of your life!